Tsjusterboksem, 1998-2026

Tsjusterboksem, 1998-2026 is part of a series titled Disintegration Sculptures, as I have yet to stumble upon an appropriately fitting name. This video-installation was shown during my graduation at SIGN gallery, Groningen.

This series is an accumulation of questions and annoyances. What began with questions about movement within sculpture slowly grew into an interest in how context and temporality shape the meaning of a work. Whereas 'Klaaifrou' acted more as an intimate observation and personal reflection on the process itself, Tsjusterboksem shifted towards questions of contextual positioning and public reception, and how these, in turn, influence my understanding of the process and artist.

The graduation show was a highly active and stimulating event, it included numerous exhibitions which where spread across the city. This concentrated accumulation of information can fry even the most hardened art observers.

Thus, I found interesting to make my installation as minimal as possible. I presented Tsjusterboksem on a simple 32-inch television, which honestly did little justice to the mesmerising footage. From an artistic point of view, this was a little difficult to accept. Tsjusterboksem itself is a slow work. The figurative and recognisable disintegration only lasts a couple of minutes. Most of the time, visitors would find themselves looking at what, rather dryly put, is a piece of clay in water.

Once I had gotten over my initial bruising of the artist's ego, it became both amusing and interesting to hear and observe the various reactions. Ranging from confusion and frustration to admiration.

After the graduation, I was asked whether I would be interested in showing the film during the 2026 Paradigm Festival. Admittedly, this again felt somewhat risky from an artistic point of view. A techno festival is a different piece of cake from a gallery. I imagined the slowness of my video would most likely bore most of the people there. Yet perhaps that was exactly what would make it interesting.

I enjoyed the vulnerability of it: walking around the festival and claiming credit for something that, as some visitors kindly put it, 'Nothing is happening, this is worthless!'. And it gave me new insights into contextual meaning and prompted me to ponder whether the work resided in the material, the context, or the observers themselves. It is almost as if context had become the material I had actually wanted to work with all along, turning the project into a kind of material research.

Tsjusterboksem concluded another part of the Disintegration Sculptures series. Currently, I am trying to discover different ways of presenting the works, perhaps in a manner that allows for a little more control from my point of view as the artist.

As those ego-bruises really don't heal quickly enough. :)